SVTP makes Thursday of Mustang Week its own with the Blow-By Racing Coyote Cruise and the CJ Pony Parts Exhaust Competition

Officially Mustang Week Thursday means drag racing at The House of Speed—Darlington Dragway in Darlington, South Carolina. It is a bit of a drive out to the track, so it’s best to get some sustenance before you make the trip. For those that go and those that stay, the official activities really get started with a cruise-in at Hooters, which is in the parking lot of the Myrtle Beach Mall where the big car show and cruise-in are held.

During Mustang Week, Thursday means Drag Night. For many that means caravanning out to Darlington Dragway for some quarter-mile fun. That doesn’t mean it quiets down at the mall, however. Ford opened up its display for the crowds and collected entries for its latest 5.0 Fever contest, which is giving away a 2015 Mustang.

In previous years, there has been a solid turnout of cars, but we have never seen so much Mustang activity on a Thursday as we did this year. The number of cars in the parking lot behind Hooters—where the show is held—had enough Mustangs in it to qualify as an informal show.

Now many of those cars had gathered to join the SVTP/Blow-By Racing Coyote Cruise. Yes, we had our own full slate of activities planned for Thursday afternoon. It began with organizing and photographing the Coyote Cruise group before hopping in the passenger seat of a turbocharged Boss 302 to chase down the pack and take some shots before the cruise ended at Longbeards Bar & Grill for the SVTP Cruise-In.

After enjoying some great food, drink, and conversation with the SVTP family, it was time to get back to business. Longbeards parking lot became the official playing field for the inaugural SVTP/CJ Pony Parts Exhaust Competition. Ten Mustangs revved their engines for 45 seconds a piece, and the crowd picked its favorite exhaust tone by cheering the loudest.

All the cars sounded great, so it was a tough decision, but the crowd ultimately chose a Terminator as the event’s first winner. It was a great afternoon, and we can’t wait to do it all over again next year.

Of course, there was a large contingent of people that made the trip out to Darlington for the quarter-mile action. Since we couldn’t be in two places at one time, we have to thank our friends at FordRacingNation.com for sharing a few shots of Drag Night to round out our fourth day of coverage.

Others choose Thursday as a time to break away from the official events and have fun. However, there is an official Meet ’N Greet for those in either group at Hooters, and we’ve never seen it busier than this year.New Edge Bullitts are rare, with only 5,582 examples created in 2001. True Blue Bullitts are the most rare, with only 723 created. That didn’t stop this proud owner from liberally modding his ride. The highlights are a paint-matched JLT intake, an SCT Live Wire, an MGW shifter, and 3.73 gears.

SVTPerformance/Blow-By Racing Coyote Cruise

As your scribe’s first ever Coyote Cruise, I couldn’t get over what a great turnout we had for the event. Our usual spot for group photos was in use, so we had to corral the 40-plus cruisers right in the Myrtle Beach Mall parking. As I tried to line them up it, seemed like the just kept coming. I was concerned we might run out of space. It all worked out, and the pack of Coyotes looks pretty sweet.I needed to hitch a ride so I could capture some photos of the cars in action. When Jeff Polivka of the JPC Racing crew offered the shotgun seat in his King of the Street-alum turbo Boss 302, it didn’t take long to say yes. You haven’t lived until you are hanging out the window of a turbo RoadRunner snapping photos while the boost is pouring into the throttle body. Thanks for the thrill ride, Jeff!Blow-By Racing’s Steve Gelles led the pack of powerful Coyotes through the back roads around Myrtle Beach in his sweet 2013 Mustang GT.If you have ever questioned the streetability of Justin Burcham’s 1,200hp Coyote, you can leave those doubts behind. Justin couldn’t make it out Mustang Week this year, but the JPC crew was out in full force, and they really seemed to enjoy cruising this ride around town.We couldn’t think of a more beautiful sight than a line of Mustangs that goes on as far as the eye can see. We can’t wait to see what the Coyote Cruise looks like next year when the S550s are on the street. This was the end of the line for the cruise, and the beginning of the SVTP Cruise-In.

SVTPerformance Cruise-In

The SVTP/BBR Coyote Cruise conveniently ended at Longbeards Bar & Grill where the annual SVTP Cruise-In is held. It’s a great spot for a relaxing afternoon hang, and the burgers were tasty.Naturally the SVTP Cruise-In was open to anyone no matter what Fords they drove, so we had a diverse bunch of SVTs and other performance Fords on hand. Of course, you simply can’t go wrong with a row of five Terminators.

SVTPerformance/CJ Pony Parts Exhaust Competition

For a first-time event, we couldn’t have been happier with the quality of the turnout for the SVTPerformance/CJ Pony Parts Exhaust Competition. We had 10 beautiful Mustangs from all eras and they all had great-sounding exhaust systems.Like the SVTP Burnout contest, the winner of the exhaust competition is chosen by the crowd reaction. The idea was for the crowd to chose the exhaust tone that they liked the best, so it wasn’t necessarily the car with the loudest exhaust that would win.The rules were quite simple. Overseen by our own SID297 each contestant would start their car, rev the engine to 3,000 rpm, rev the engine to 5,000 rpm, and then they could rev however they liked for the remainder of their 45-second window. After session completed, SID would rev up the crowd for its reaction.Making history as our first Exhaust Competition winner, this 2004 Mustang Cobra earned the loudest cheer from the crowd. Its exhaust system consists of MAC long-tube headers, a Lethal Performance catalytic X-pipe, a Magnaflow after-cat, and its secret weapon—electrically actuated exhaust cutouts.Now our sponsor CJ Pony Parts provided goody bags for all the contestants, but only winner Michael Anthony, owner of the 2004 Mustang Cobra, took home the $500 gift card from CJPP as his grand prize. Congrats Michael!We want to thank everyone who came out to the SVTP Cruise-In to participate and judge the Exhaust Competition. However, only Michael, the big winner, scored a photo with our leader, SID297, and his CJPP gift card prize.

Drag Night

The Mustang Week Drag Night action at Darlington Dragway was hot and sticky in many ways. As usual, the staging lanes were packed all night and drag fans made passes. Things did get bogged down by an unusual distraction when announcer Brad Worley, of Mustang Week fame, had to announce that passes would be temporarily suspended until cows were coaxed off the return road. Yes, a breach in the fence allowed some cattle to join the Mustang Week ponies.Fox convertibles have a surprisingly storied history in drag racing, and this droptop was all about the grudge racing at Drag Night!Adria Poon was taking it all in at Mustang Week. We saw his wrapped 2013 Mustang GT getting it done at every event from the Meet ’N Greet to the SVTP Burnout Contest. By embracing the event so strongly, Adria earned the Sponsor’s Choice Award from our friends at Ford Racing Nation.You don’t see many vintage ’Stangs at Mustang Week, but this one was a crowd favorite at Darlington, as its owner enjoyed making hot laps in the heat.